The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have previously been conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Health packet probes are utilized to ping network components and check that they are operating as they should. Generally health packets are transmitted at specific intervals. The receiving network component returns a confirmation of receipt of the health packets. If the receiving side fails to receive a few health packets in a row, it may determine that there is a problem with the communication network link. Alternatively, or in addition, if the transmitting side fails to receive a few health packet acknowledgements in a row, it may determine that there is a problem with the communication network link. In addition, the time between transmission of health packets may be increased if the link is idle, or decreased if there is a suspicion that a problem may exist with the link, to conserve network bandwidth.
Traditionally, when a problem is suspected on a network link, more health packets are transmitted. The time in between a suspicion and a confirmation of a break in a network link can be several seconds, or longer. In the interim, the link continues to be used. If the link is confirmed as nonoperational, then all of the data transmitted over it while waiting for confirmation of nonoperational status, is lost. Thus, a mechanism is needed to detect a break in a network link quickly.
Further, in an enterprise comprising many network components, sending health packets between every network device continuously can significantly increase the network traffic and congestion. Thus, a mechanism is needed to detect a break in a network link without continuously sending many health packets and unnecessarily increasing network overhead.